Despite The Odds
by LeoBrando
Summary: Kaori thinks to herself as she takes care of her Master.


**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

This takes place during the manga. If you've only seen the movie, you might find yourself a bit confused. Sorry!

* * *

" _Kaaaaoooriiii_..."

The pitiful wail echoing out on the stone walls was all too familiar to her. Since that fateful day... he had always called for her like this. Her hands slowed from where they were, dipped in the wooden washbasin the aide had scavenged, and Lord Akira looked up at her from it, stoic as ever, blinking twice.

"Sorry... I guess bathtime's over, huh?" Kaori smiled, and took the boy's small, plump hands in her own to help him out of the basin. From there, she could do no more than dry him off and lay his clothes on the bed. He was a growing boy; he could do the rest on his own. "You know how Master Tetsuo is. I shouldn't keep him waiting." As always, he didn't answer. Just looked at her, never disturbed by what happened around him.

Her Master's aide– the one who had brought her here in the first place– always disapproved of her leaving Lord Akira alone, but... he was usually fine, and he had brought part of his collection of rocks inside to play with, anyways. He had such an odd fascination with them.

Bringing him to see her Master was riskier than leaving him alone at this point, in any case. He was unpredictable when he was upset—sometimes violent, sometimes needy, sometimes starkly resembling a terrified young child.

And, quite honestly, that scared her a little, too. Because... it actually upset her to see him hurting like this, and she wasn't sure she wanted to care about her Master as much as she did. (Weren't slaves supposed to be unhappy?)

Walking into his chamber, the scene that unfolded in front of her was familiar. He was hunched over, bare, on the mass of pillows and blankets near the wall, curled into a ball and shimmering with sweat as he gagged, coughed, spit up nothing but his own thick saliva into the metal bucket she had once found for him.

"K... Kaa- _aaa_..." His cry was broken by another retch, and Kaori felt her heart wrench violently in her chest.

Alone, he was nothing like the leader he presented himself as to the Empire. Here, he spent his nights crying, wailing, waking up in the night only to writhe and convulse and sob. He... was like a kid. He was a kid, wasn't he? He couldn't have been much older than her, but she'd never thought to ask about it because it never seemed important–

He retched again, shaking violently, and Kaori remembered her place. "Master Tetsuo.." Master. The word rolled off of her tongue with ease, and while it had once made her sick to her stomach, now she didn't quite mind. (She knew, deep down, that their relationship had grown deeper than a master and his slave. She just... didn't like to think about it. He still insisted he was her master when she asked, anyways, and what Master Tetsuo says goes.)

She kneeled down next to his pale body, letting him lean against her shoulder, and his damp skin stuck to the fabric of her shirt like glue. "Do you... need anything?" Capsules. Syringes. Always something they had laying around. He would go cold-turkey for a day or two, then go right back where he started. Kaori had just started keeping extra supplies hidden around.

She didn't blame him for relapsing, though. He sounded like he thought he was dying, and looked like it, too.

Tetsuo shook his head, coughed, sniffled. She knew he was crying. She didn't bring it up. He was hurting. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him, and held him close.

In an... odd sort of way, he reminded her of her brother. She hadn't seen him, not since... the fall of Neo-Tokyo. All she had been left with, then, was her sickly father.

Sometimes she wondered if he was still alive, or if they'd found and killed him. She didn't want to find out.

So, now, all she had left was Master Tetsuo and Lord Akira, and to be entirely honest with herself, she didn't quite mind. Master Tetsuo was a bit mean, but he cared deep down, and Akira was low-maintenance and rather cute, even if he was uncomfortably stoic. Sure, once or twice he tried to eat the rocks he played with, but she was pretty sure that was a normal(?) kid thing.

"Kaori..." He sounded so small, like this. Really, he was small, almost as small as Kaori herself. He looked big, so tall, when he stood in front of the Empire, but alone.. He was just. Small. She supposed confidence made people look bigger than they really were.

"Master Tetsuo?" She spoke softly, running her hand through his sweat-slicked hair. It had grown longer lately. ...Maybe she'd be allowed to cut it if she asked nicely.

"Please... don't leave me." Eyes staring ahead at nothing, his hand fumbled across her lap– first grabbing at her thigh, then her skirt, and finally managing to grasp her left hand. Cold, clammy, but unmistakably Master Tetsuo's.

"I won't." Her thumb brushed against the back of his hand. "I won't leave." They'd kill her if she did.

She said nothing more, only sat there with her Master until, eventually, he tired himself out and fell asleep. He.. was remarkably calm when he slept. It was the only time he didn't look scared, or upset, or angry. So, Kaori preferred him like this. He would always snore quietly, she'd noticed, and sometimes he'd thrash a little bit and then wake up in a panic and sob but he would always calm down once Kaori put her hand up to his cheek.. She would remind him that she was still here, and he'd get this look on his face like he'd forgotten where he was, before his eyelids fluttered and closed again.

Thinking about all of these little things, she wondered if, maybe, she was falling in love with her master, and if, maybe, _just maybe_ , he was falling in love with her too.

"Sleep well... Tetsuo."

Maybe... someday... they could live happily together, despite all the odds stacked against them.


End file.
